Everybody Welcome | Thanksgiving 2013

I've been prepping for Thanksgiving for about a week.  If I had started dreaming about it any earlier, I never would have gotten things done.  You know, children taught, babies bathed, etc.  I. LOVE. THANKSGIVING.  It is my love language to feed people.  Tomorrow is my superbowl.

And so I posted the menu to facebook, inviting every and any body to come partake.  And believe me, it is a good menu, meant to lure in unsuspecting folks and fill up their bellies until they can no longer move freely, and then attack them with my friendliness.

That's the basics of any good thanksgiving plan, right?

We've got 6 people coming.  Truth be told, I wanted more.  Not because those who are attending aren't good enough, I was just hoping for... chaos, I guess.  To make the holidays feel more like home.  Also, I bought a 20-pound turkey.  High hopes, you might say.  I was hoping for a find-some-extra-chairs, kids-have-to-sit-on-the-ground, adults-drinking-out-of-sippy-cups-because-we've-run-out, type of day.  The kind where there's just so many people you don't even know what to do with them all, but everyone is pleased to be together.  The fact I have 20+ people in my original family ('rents & sibs & spouses & offspring) and Handsome has 35+ first cousins may play into this idea of the ideal.

If 6 is all we get, then I'm going to love on those six as if they were 20.  And it will be a fabulous day.  And we will relive it again and again until the leftovers run out sometime in early January.  But I'm not throwing in the towel just yet.  I've got neighbors, you see.  And I don't know them very well, but we've exchanged pleasantries.  So I'm going to tape a note on their door today, see if I can't round up a few more people who love good grub and shoulder-to-shoulder holiday cheer.

If you're wondering what we're having, I've got a menu for you.  If you're trying to decide whether to make the 400 mile trek to my house, the answer is yes, and we eat at 6P.  Make it happen.

I tried to make this clickable.
I failed miserably and wasted 1.25 hours of baking time.
So if you want to know what's what, check out the pin-board that it all came from!
Please note the organization of
optional sides | necessities | desserts
I'll be eating from middle to right to left, most likely ;)

Now come, eat, drink, and let's make merry!  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

<3 M.

Wishing You Thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving, peoples of the world.  Even if you don't celebrate today's holiday, I hope you have a wonderful day, full of thankfulness, good memories, and Al Roker.

via
Also, can we take a moment to notice the whining kid, to the right (our right) of the lady?
What's his deal?
Does he have to whiz?
Are his shoes cramping his toes?
Maybe no one told him this was for publicity...

Even if Al is not quite half the man he used to be.  And I'm not saying anything about the guy's character. Seriously, where did he go?!  Obviously, he isn't eating Cheesecake Pumpkin Cookies or Banana Pudding cake today...  

Anyhow, I'm off to start baking and cue up the parade, one of my very favoritest of holiday traditions.  It's different now that I'm an adult, because I've gotta keep running to the kitchen to check on things, and I've got 17 loads of laundry to fold while I watch, but I'm okay with that, as long as I get to see Snoopy and some dancing.  And the bands.  I love the bands.  I always wanted to be in one of those bands.

I'm thankful for my husband, for our home and our shared laughter.  For my useless dog who refused to go down the stairs to check out things that go bump in the night.  For friends that are like family, who you can share holidays with and threaten harm to if they use canned gravy when they have perfectly good turkey drippings sitting on the stove, and who tell you to arrive 3 hours early because they know you're always late. I thankful for God's love, his grace, his beauty, and his just-ness.  For the Pittsburgh Steelers, even though they just keep breaking my heart.  And I'm thankful that the grocery store is only 2.6 miles from my house, because I'm pretty sure being out of milk and nearly out of butter when it's time to bake is a bad thing.

Happy Thanksgiving.  Le'ts knock this holiday out of the park!

<3 M.

Small Things

In truth, things have felt a little crazy around here.  I mean, you've seen my living room full of boxes.  We also have yet to have confirmation on the exact closing date and time, which is slightly nervous-making, as it seems to me such an event deserves both (a) the proper prepartion, and (b) the proper build up.  I mean, we're buying our first house, here, people.  It only happens once.  I want to be properly worked up and excited for the event when it does arrive, yaknowwhatImean?

But, then, in talking to my SIL, I was reminded that it's the small things where we can find our moments of sanity.  So here's my "small things" for the day.

Maybe it's for a snack, maybe it's for breakfast.
Maybe you eat so much that you have to use a smaller-than-suggested sized pan.
Either way, inside a bowl of from-a-box brownie batter is where my worries disappear.

Readjusting My Attitude

I'll admit freely, it wasn't my first impulse.  I didn't want to adjust my attitude.  Nope.  My plan was to get on here and bemoan my sorry state, and tell you all the miserable awful not-terrible-but-just-not-very-good things I was feeling.

In a word, LAME-O.

But then I heard this song playing through my head.  And then God spoke to my heart in a quiet gentle way.  And the adjusting began.  And, honestly, its happened about 3 more times since the first time, about 18 minutes ago.  Yes, I'm that changeable.  But I'm trying, and I'm learning.

So instead, let me share my newly re-adjusted (and re- and re- and re-adjusted) attitude with you!  Its a grateful heart, thankful and full of humility, knowing that, especially in light of my recent terrible attitude, I don't deserve any thing that I have, I've earned just about... none of it, and I can't do anything to make it otherwise. So here's my new outlook, with a heart full of thanks to redeemer God.